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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts]

Public Works Department

page 497

Public Works Department.

Mr. William Henry Green , Overseer in the Public Works Department was appointed to the charge of the Hokitika-Ross railway construction work in November, 1904. He was born in the year 1878, at Mosgiel, Otago, and was educated in Wellington and on the West Coast. Mr. Green was brought up to work as a carpenter in connection with bridge building and railway connection. After acting as working overseer for three years, he was appointed an overseer under the Public Works Department in 1903. For eighteen months, Mr. Green was in charge of the Motupiko Tadmor railway, before being transferred to Hokitika. He married a daughter of Mr. P. Gibson, of Greymouth, in the year 1895, and has four sons and one daughter.

Mr. James Nightingale , Overseer in the Public Works Department, and formerly overseer of the Blackwell construction works, is an old colonist. He was born at Chertsey, Surrey, England, in the year 1837, and educated at Ripley school. Mr. Nightingale was brought up on his father's farm, and afterwards learned engineering. In 1862, he arrived in Melbourne, Australia, and after a short stay, came to New Zealand, and landed in Lyttelton. The Lyttelton tunnel works were then in progress, and Mr. Nightingale was appointed time-keeper; but on the rush breaking out at Wakamarina he proceeded to the West Coast, where he was fairly successful. He subsequently went back to Canterbury, conducted an hotel in Christchurch for a short time, and then returned to the diggings on the West Coast. Mr. Nightingale finally entered the public works department, where he has remained for nearly forty years. He is a widower, and has five children. One of his sons is part proprietor of the “Hokitika Guardian,” another is manager of the Greymouth business of McKay and Sons, drapers, while another, who has recently graduated B.A., is a teacher in the Wellington district.